The present invention relates to a sheet material transporting apparatus and, more particularly, to a sheet material transporting apparatus used in an image-forming apparatus such as a copying machine.
In a conventional two-side copying machine wherein the images are respectively formed on the front and back surfaces of a sheet, after a toner image is transferred to and fixed on one surface of the sheet, the sheet is discharged by the sheet material transporting apparatus from a fixing unit. The sheet is then fed to a sheet feed direction changing gate which changes the feed direction of the sheet in order to turn over the sheet. This inverted sheet is again fed by the sheet material transporting apparatus to a transfer portion. Another toner image is formed on the other surface of the sheet. This toner image is fixed by the fixing unit, thereby completing two-side copying. According to the conventional copying machine of this type, the gate for changing the feed direction of the sheet must be arranged in the sheet material transporting apparatus, thus increasing the number of components and the space required for the gate.